With much help from my alarm we woke up at dawn in this beautiful spot. All the birds woke up with us as well, so we did some recording for Theda to listen to. We hit the road immediately to make our way down to the 12 Apostles in the morning and have our breakfast there. As we drove, the sun heated up the forests and fields, creating some amazing scenery with mist drifting over the landscape. We were the first to arrive the 12 Apostles carpark, and strolled down to the cliffs to take our photos and look at the views. The surf looked good too, but it'd be damn hard climbing back up the cliffs. Or as the sigh said "If you fall over the edge you may DIE" (emphasis not mine).

We had our breakfast in the parking lot, causing a few raised eyebrows from the then arriving tourists. In Port Campell, soo "PC", our last coast town before heading inland, we picked up some good coffee for the road. It was yet another picturesque town I wouldn't mind spending some time in. Or buying a house…

As we left the coast we immediately came into farmland. Not nearly as exciting as the Great Ocean Road had been had been. Our maps didn't provide us with nearly enough details to find the way, luckily Google Maps did. Even though it guided us through a mud/gravel road through some fields. We had to get out of the car and walk to check that the ground was solid enough for our 2-wheel drive. At the tourist info in Dunkeld we were lectured for a while by an old feisty lady who had seen snow for the first time in Norway in 1955, and didn't find the scenery on the buss-tour from Broome to Port Headland very interesting. Also she didn't manage to let us know what we wanted to know about the camping possibilities in the Grampians. The tourist info in Halls Gap wasn't much more help either. So I did my own map reading and followed my gut feeling, and led us properly up into the mountain for the first time on the trip. Higher and higher (by Perth standards), onto a gravel track, we came past a few individual bush camping spots. We arrived at one where Shan wisely said "We've done enough camping to know a good spot when we see one". And it truly is!

We are the only people around, it is wonderfully peaceful, we have views of the mountains surrounding us, birds (again) (honey-eaters, wrens, white cockatoos), and millions of stars. And Shannon had somehow managed to get hold of a bottle of champagne today without me noticing. Not a bad way to spend our 7 year anniversary. Blissed out on nature and bubbly alcohol we sat by the fire and laid plans for the future.